Chronicle Books - not a sibling of this newspaper anymore - has made its name with colorful volumes often focusing on culture, featuring art, recipes, humor, whimsy. But Wednesday night, the company hosted a book party for its newest author, D.A. Kamala Harris, whose "Smart on Crime" is a serious treatise on a serious subject.

In describing his decision to publish this "career prosecutor's plan to make us safer," the company's Nion McEvoy said that Harris sharing with him in casual conversation her thoughts about crime and justice prompted his offer: " 'If you write a book, I'll publish it.' ... For us at Chronicle Books, we don't do so many books on the subject, but this was so important, I pushed everything else aside."

Despite the gravity of the subject, the event was pleasantly sentimental, the hometown gang gathering to take pride in one of its own. The D.A. gave a shout-out to the boldest-faced names of all (the Shultzes), but also to many office staffers there and also to Jay Schaefer, her editor, and to Joan Hamilton, who'd helped her write the book. Such assistance often goes unacknowledged in post-publication hoopla; the D.A. did the gracious thing. Her sister, Maya, had flown in from New York to be there. The book is dedicated to their late mother, and the author choked up while mentioning that.

As to the role of families in the future, Arts Commission President P.J. Johnstoncarried little Rosie; Harris campaign team member Gayle Threetshad little Khiara in her arms; Summer Tompkins Walker brought along little Della; Vanessa Gettybrought along Nicholas and Alexander. The pink shoes worn by two of those little girls were far removed from the D.A.'s businesslike pumps. Nonetheless, wise parents know a good role model.

-- ABC plans to promote its sci-fi miniseries "V" by sending skywriters to write "V" in red around famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge. In response to a constituent concerned about the environmental and visual impact of this, Supervisor Bevan Dufty has fired off letters to the city, the bridge authority and the FAA.

-- Drummer Mickey Hart, who during the Dead's spring tour "connected audiences with the universe's most celestial vibrations from the Big Bang to the rings of Saturn to the black hole," is on the History Channel talking about "The Universe: Pulsars & Quasars" at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

This is the oldest library branch that is still in use as such. Although it looks like an Andrew Carnegie building, the city of San Francisco originally paid for the site ($7,000) and the building ($27,000). In the next few months, it will close for a year for renovations, "a really exciting thing from our perspective," says branch manager Kathy Delneo.

But here we are in San Francisco, so what's new? Not every neighbor is rejoicing. A brochure handed out at Litcrawl complained about "an unnecessary one-year closure for renovations that will spoil historic and other features of the branch we love."

P.P.S.: West Portal art lovers worried about Chase bank renovations (removing some of the art installed by Home Savings and left there during the WaMu era) are herewith provided with reassurance/explanation: Yes, the interior mural, painted on Sheetrock and "in poor condition" is going, says Chase's Gary Kishner, but the exterior sculptures will not be touched. Usually, if Chase removes a work, it is fixed or donated to someone else; the sheetrock and its state of disrepair made that impossible in this case.

Public Eavesdropping

"Sorry if I'm slow today. We had book group last night, so I'm a little hung over."

Woman sipping double latte, overheard at Peet's on West Portal by Karen Roorda